Tacombi Flatiron – Cafe El Presidente

This was a tough one to rate. Me and three friends came after work for drinks and food — the interior is really cool and makes you feel like you got plopped in a Mexican market. The staff was very pushy in the beginning to get us to order guac or an appetizer though. We were like, ‘can we just enjoy our drinks and read over the menu?’
Anywho.
Food: We got 14 tacos between 4 people. They all seemed pretty good. The Baja Fish was surprisingly bland. And one of the al pastor tacos was particularly fatty. Overall though, the tacos were good and I’d give them a 4 out of 5.
Drinks: This is where it goes down hill. We got a pitcher of Margaritas which were quite good. The mistake was getting a pitcher of Sangria — completely watered down and definitely the type of Sangria where they put some fruit in wine right before serving. Very little Sangria flavor. The kicker with the drinks? A pitcher of Margs is $ 49. And a pitcher of that lackluster Sangria is $ 39. Waste. Of. Money.
Value: Not good. Between 4 of us: 14 tacos, 2 pitchers of drinks, and it came out to $ 50 per head with tip. Mind you, it’s JUST the tacos that you get. No rice. No beans. Just small tacos. Needless to say, I’m hungover the day after because we had to make up for the ‘meh’ experience with several beers at a cheaper establishment ;).
Don’t think I’ll be back, unfortunately.

Dank tacos. Expensive drinks. Guac all day.

I had dinner here a couple times. Not a ton of vegetarian options but the guacamole is fantastic. The esquite is great too. The pineapple ginger juice and horchata are delicious. Love the ambiance too. Young, loud crowd but not overwhelming. Great for a date! All their locations are a little different which is super fun too

Food tastes good but tacos are smaller than a fist. $ 4 for tiny tacos, $ 5 for mini drinks. Online reviews told me how good this place was disappointed to say it didn’t live up to its expectations. For being a Mexican restaurant and not serving jarritos was a disappointment. As well the fact that their tacos had no lettuce, sour cream not anything for the matter and for the prices they charge you would think it was better. Better to go to chipotle to get a better bang for your buck. Hope this was of help because the others were not for me.

Stopped in at 10:30 on a Monday night to cure my after work taco craving. I wanted delicious tacos, not the late night food truck ones with shredded lettuce. Attractive space. At first nobody seemed to be seating or waiting on people, but I got a table. Tried the Baja crispy fish, black bean and sweet potato, and a piña y ginger (with orange added). The fish was perfect, not too greasy, and almost bigger than the tortilla. Great, light cabbage slaw and sauce as well. The black bean was as attractive as those two ingredients can be. And the juice was iced and perfectly balanced.
I will be back again, probably at this time, when it’s empty and relaxing.

Soo it’s definitely not authentic Mexican therefore the 3 stars. Or maybe 3.5? In Unilocal language it doesn’t really matter. That said, the space is meticulously designed to transform you to a market in Mexico. The quesadilla, while untraditional, is pretty delicious. Instead of melting cheese between two tortillas, it’s protein and cheese on top of the tortilla. I ate it folded in half, and it was way better than the grilled fish taco I had.
By the way, would not recommend the grilled fish taco, which had too much pepper toppings and not enough fish.
Oh and get the elotes. It doesn’t come on the cob, but actually the little paper cup is kind of fun and makes eating easier.
Good place for hanging out and some drinks.

Food was great – I had the shrimp and black bean quesadilla which was made with their homemade flour tortillas and a good portion of cheese, beans, shrimp, and a medium spicy aoili. Wish the drinks were a little cheaper ($ 13 cocktails) but the food is priced super reasonably and the ambience is cool (if you don’t mind it being loud); mostly young crowd. The bathrooms are certainly an experience, but not in a bad way.

I finally had a chance to go back to tacombi and revisit to make sure I had a accurate review. It took us a while to be seated, but when we were the waiter was attentive even though it was super busy.
We order the guacamole and chips to share and each got the al pastor. I remembered the Baja crispy fish was really good last time so I ordered it again as well.
Maybe I mentally hyped it up too much but the al pastor is the way to go. It was delicious and I loved the sweetness of the pineapple. The Baja fish was good but if I could only have one I’d have the al pastor.
There’s definitely kitchen efficiency problems because every single time I’ve been here wether it be drinks or food it’s always slow to come to the table. We had to follow up with the waiter twice during this visit for my Baja fish.
If my food was on time I’d definitely give this place their fourth star.

Tacombi is so good.
The guacamole is to die for with fresh fried tortilla chips.
My favorites are the baja crispy fish taco and the gringa quesadilla. Their house made hot sauces are all to die for as well.
The only taco that falls short is the al pastor, it’s dry and doesn’t live up to the others flavor wise.

Tacombi is pretty awesome. I’m a big fan of the SoHo /​Elizabeth St. location so I was excited to give the Flatiron one a try.
First, the space is massive. Absolutely huge and plenty of tables to sit at. It is lacking the VW bus which is so iconic at the SoHo outpost. We came for dinner and passed on drinks, ordering a taco parade with a side of some guac and chips.
Let’s start with the guac. It’s good — typically pricey at $ 11 but we managed to grab a side for $ 6 which was still a very healthy portion! Chips were good and the guac was just ok.
We ordered the Chicken Quesadilla which was OUTSTANDING. So flavorful, I’d definitely recommend this over some of the other tacos we had. Loved the Al Pastor pork and pineapple taco. We were not a big fan of the sweet potato special on a tostada, mainly because the tostada was of an odd consistency — hard but also slightly chewy which was hard to eat. Chorizo taco was on point.
Great spot for Flatiron. Typically there is a super long wait to sit down, but thankfully there are plenty of great places to grab a drink in the area during your wait if the Tacombi bar is full.

Found this restaurant through Unilocal,live in the neighborhood never knew about it. The tacos were great, the chips and guacamole were good also. My only issue was their drinks are really pricey.

This place is usually pretty decent (hence two stars) even if I prefer their Elizabeth Street location. Today was different. New hostess I’ve not yet seen and an empty (2 – 3 tables out of 30 busy) restaurant but after 10min of waiting (usually I only wait 5 but I was really holding out hope here!) I went back to the hostess to say I was leaving… she didn’t even make eye contact as I said I was leaving (think she was learning how the seating map worked on the iPad).
Anyway, a real shame as I’ve been going there once every two weeks on average for the last year year. Normally, I’d say avoid a place when it’s busy… but actually the service here is non-​existent when the restaurant is quiet. I’d say only go during peak hours; as a once-​regular here, that’s your best bet at getting served.

TACOMBI Flat Iron Area, on West 24^th Street. I called to place my «all vegetarian» take-​out order of Guacamole & chips, 4 sweet potato & black bean tacos. I arrived only minutes later, & my order had just been placed on the lovely, white tiled counter, with Alfonso and Gus nearby. The TACOMBI brown shopping bag was ready to go. Manny (of TACOMBI) stopped by to say hi to his coworkers, so I snapped a photo, WITH THEIR PERMISSION… see the photo! A pleasure to do business with a restaurant that has great food & great people working there.
I met my friend for lunch outdoors on the rooftop dining area of her office building… so nice. Food was great! We both agreed. The next time I order, I will remember that my VEGAN friend does not eat cheese, or dairy, or meat, fish, chicken, so I’ll just ask TACOMBI to leave off the cheese.
It was a delicious lunch. All this fresh, delicious, food was just under $ 30. Lunch for two. The tacos look small, but they are full of flavor & very fresh ingredients. This was money well spent, and fairly priced for such FRESH INGREDIENTS. I highly recommend TACOMBI. So far, I have enjoyed food from TACOMBI on Bleecker Street, Tacombi on West 24^th Street& I must try the TACOMBI further downtown on or near Lafayette Street. That location has the VW bus/​van vehicle inside its space. The van was used to start TACOMBI. Gotta visit there!

HUGE space — I had only passed the NoLita location before, so wasn’t expecting such a large space here. It’s VERY loud, so it was absolutely perfect for our giant group of 23 people, but maybe not the best place if you’re looking for a quiet, romantic date spot.
We sat at a long table sort of in the back and sampled from a prix fixe menu: guacamole, esquites (delicious spicy street corn), fried fish tacos, pork tacos, vegetarian tacos and chicken tacos. My favorite were tacos al pastor (the pork tacos). The street corn is also quite good. I skipped the chicken and vegetarian tacos because I was so full by the time they arrived.
Great spot for a big group. We shared pitchers of sangria and margaritas and buckets of beer. Price was good per person for what we had. I’m a fan!

Lol. Okay, where do I begin… this experience was beyond silly. I recommended it to my friends as our Cinco destination b/​c I liked the one on the LES. It’s totally supposed to be vibes, right right?!
But naw, aside from the fact that we were seated immediately, the rest of the evening didn’t stack up at all. The «pitcher» of margarita, talk about a fuck ton of ice, hardly, barely, almost 4 drinks for 59 bucks. What a waste. And it arrived with all the food too, talk about bringing things the way they normally are at any freaking restaurant.
And that was the whole problem with this restaurant. They did the most baffling things. Like each of us ordered 4 discreet plates of tacos, but they served us like 5 generic tacos, arranged by meat/​topping. Like WTF. How hard is it, exactly, to plate the food the way people ordered it? Only like every restaurant I’ve ever gone to… Lol
So we’re fucking confused. Cuz it’s like which meat is what, it’s all hella ambigious. Who ordered what, and how many? Totally threw us off. Anyways, the avocado tostadas, while piled high, sucked. Like just cold beans, almost stale tortilla, no combination of hot sauces could save it.
Blah. Some of the meat tacos were legit, we had carne asada, carnitas, al pastor and fried fish. I think I liked al pastor the best, but how the fuck was I supposed to know what I was eating. Oh I do like the hot oil though, that’s cool. Um yeah… but otherwise, this place serves up shit margs at abhorrently high prices, comptetely disorganized service — they brought us our checks, but didn’t leave us a pen x_​x — maybe it’s cuz its Cinco, but actually, no I can’t give them that cuz it’s not like there a line or shit, and you what day it is on calendar goddamn.
I feel silly when I recommend a place to my friends, who take my word on it, and it’s just not what you made it out to be at all.

I stopped by for an event on the lower level which was quiet. The main level is insanely noisy. Not a place for me. But it was very very busy. Lots of people like it.

First thing first, I was VERY disappointed in my experience. I’ve always heard about Tacombi, seen awesome photos and since it’s right by my job, I would pass by it all the time.
I must say the inside is so cute you feel as is you are in Mexico, so dumbs up for that! That’s what brought me into Tacombi more because of their ‘cool’ ambiance.
To start off we ordered guacamole and tips (always a must!) I ordered chorizo and carne asada tacos… the chorizo was extremely cold! No where near warmed what so ever. It was a bit spicy which I was able to eat but being a HUGE fan of chorizo I was SO upset they were cold!
My sister and her friend ordered. a steak and chicken quesadilla. One more thin flour tortilla, that once they took two bites, it was soggy.
Service: Horrible. We didn’t have one waiter, to be honest if we did I couldn’t even tell you who he was because each time someone came to our table (which was a total of three times) was someone new. They weren’t attentive, didn’t refill our bottle of water, never came to check if the food was good nor asking how we were doing.
For being a huge fan of Mexican food, I Can honestly say there are many more places that have better authentic Mexican food. This is defiantly more of an attraction spot rather then a good food spot.

Couple things to know before you go:
To make a reservation on Open Table, type Café El Presidente NOT Tacombi. Come to think of it, you should make a reservation because this place gets packed.
The guac appetizer is a large portion — enough for four people. Pete and I are both fat and we couldn’t finish it. This is NOT a criticism.
The tacos were definitely tasty but I didn’t do a jumping drag queen split over them. We ordered beef, pork and fish. All were good. They gave us 1 extra complimentary taco, which was gracious.
Service was pleasant but it was very busy. The host was clearly busy but polite to us.
I can see myself returning to see if they can get an extra 1 or 2 stars.

Love this location and how spacious it is. Came here on Monday night with a friend from out of town and had only a 10 minute wait to get a table. It’s huge and has the same décor as the Nolita location, which I’m used to going to with the colorful tables/​art and the big truck inside.
We ordered the veggie quesadilla and esquites to share and got 6 tacos total: a few al pastor, carne asada, black bean, grilled fish, and the special. Everything was soooooooooooo good and our bill was only $ 50 after tip and tax. Of course, we got no drinks but still. Simply amazing and had an awesome time.

Craving light authentic tacos and the purest guacamole there is? Well this is your go to– simple ingredients done right. Ordered one of each of the shrimp and chicken tacos, both had a little kick to them so be prepared. Great portion of protein being that the tortilla is cute and mini, order a couple and try them!
Now on to the guacamole… holy moly it was perfection. You can certainly tell they had just made it per us ordering it, so smooth yet had ample chunks of avocado mixed through. Of course served along side crispy tortilla chips. Mmm could eat here day after day, service was quick and hospitable!